What a January!

It has been a crazy month! For those of you who haven’t heard, I have a new job! I started the year with my old job and before the end of January, I was ’settled’ in to my new one! As one can imagine, it has been difficult adjusting to the new job while training someone on the old. But I think it was a good move for me, even though I’ll miss my old co-workers. They were some of the best people you could ever work with!

Also this month, I had the pleasure of seeing three authors in person.

On January 6th, I went to the Houston Public Library to see Charlaine Harris who is the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books on which the True Blood series are based. Her engagement at HPL was sponsored by Murder by the Book which is a really cool bookstore in Houston that only sells mystery books! Back to the reading – since at that point I hadn’t read the series, it was a little weird. She mainly asked questions that I didn’t understand and now that I have read the series, I can’t remember! However, if you haven’t read the books, you should! They are well written, and Sookie is absolutely hilarious. Southern girls are just full of sarcastic wit and humor! Think Stephanie Plum but in Louisiana surrounded by vampires. I love it!

Also in January, I went to the Brazos Bookstore and listened to Nic and David Sheff. Both have written memoirs detailing their lives during the time when Nic was addicted to meth. David’s book, Beautiful Boy, talks about his perspective during those years. The writing drew me in, and although I’ve never been a parent, I almost had a grasp on how helpless he felt as he watched his son deteriorate into the world of meth. Nic’s book, Tweak, chronicles his experiences during addiction, relapse and recovery. His book is very honest but it’s hard to read. Not because it’s verbose or bad, but because the content is so heart-wrenching. Nic is very talented and tells his story well. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read the memoirs, you should. They both can give you hope if you’re fighting a similar battle or they can enlighten you to a very real problem teens and young adults face today. They both read from their books and discussed their lives at the reading and did a signing afterwards. It was also good and I discovered another new bookstore!

I really hope to write in this blog more often.  Since I no longer work with social media as a job, I think I’ll actually want to write when I get home, rather than wanting to zone out and ignore my computer!

Cha.otic gets a cast!

I have a blue soft cast on my right foot at the moment. I will for another 2 days and hopefully it will be removed at that point. I say hopefully because my foot has been swollen since Halloween with hardly any pain. I visited my primary care physician who ran a blood panel which confirmed it isn’t anything diet related but she also did an x-ray to confirm that it wasn’t broken. So she referred me to a podiatrist. My podiatrist is a freaking cool dude (seriously, he was possibly the best doctor I’ve ever had) but really couldn’t tell me much more than she did. He did say that the tendons are inflammed indicating that I may have pulled a tendon or two. He wrapped my foot up and sent me on my way with instructions to leave the soft cast on for a week. If the swelling is down, I’m cured. If NOT, I’ll get a fun walking boot for a few weeks.

Have you ever tried to shower with a soft cast? It’s no fun.

I hope my cast is off so I can go out Friday with my friends without looking like a klutz but since klutz is my middle name, I’m sure I’ll be out in a walking cast.

 

Have you ever had a cast? Any suggestions for showering? No matter what I do, it gets wet and gross.

Also, does anyone use Twitter? I need Twitter friends!

My new obsession

Again, my life makes no sense at times. I’m nearly a quarter-century old (25! Eek!) but I am obsessed with the Twilight Saga series. I have always had a thing for vampires. In high school, I planned my life around Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. I love the Anne Rice Chronicles. It’s not surprising that I’d like Twilight…except that it’s about a bunch of teenagers! You would think I would have outgrown this by now! I would giggle if I weren’t so pathetic.

Oh well. I’m trying to be good so I guess reading is a positive way to pass the time. I’ll stick by that and consider myself just plain weird.

I Love the New Millennium

I’m watching VH1’s ‘I Love the New Millennium‘ and the only thing I can say is ‘lmao’. I am a huge fan of VH1’s “I Love the …” series because they have great comedians commenting on the fads, news, and trends of the whatever decade they talk about. I’m only 24, so watching the “I Love the 1970s or 1980s” is somewhat educational because I learn about those decades and try to understand what the heck my mom goes on about regularly. And while the 1990’s really meant something to me, their new series, “I Love the New Millennium” is memory lane and makes me laugh. I totally relate to this show! This show showcases the world while I was in high school and college! It’s awesome. It’s also hilarious to reminisce the ridiculous fads of the early 2000s. Jessica Simpson and her infamous ‘chicken of the sea’ incident? Joe Millionnarie? I wonder where that guy is now. Either way, it is greatness!! I highly recommend it if you are a member of the Y generation. You won’t be sorry! You’ll laugh at the how ridiculous the year was but sigh because you totally got caugh t up in the craze!

Return to School?

My little brother graduated this weekend. It got me thinking about my future because that’s what I do. I miss school so much.  I had such great plans once upon a time. I wanted to be a professor, engage in research, and contribute to the academic world. And I’ve done nothing.

The real question becomes why do I want to return to school? Yes, a part of me really likes my job. I like the people, the company, the job. I could see a future there. But I’m not sure how far I could go in the corporate world. I really fears going nowhere in my career, and since guys aren’t exactly lining up to be my husband, I won’t even have a family to distract me from my career woes.

But I really miss academia. I miss papers. I miss research. I miss stimulating conversation with professors and peers. I had an opportunity to continue my education, but I did not take it. Everyday I feel like a fool for not taking it. But the past is the past, and now I can only change the future.

I’m at a very difficult crossroads in life. Should I return to school for my current career? If so, would i get an MBA? That really is the only way to increase my salary but an MBA would make me very overqualified and I’d have to earn more. Or do I do the difficult path and return to Academia?

Miley Cyrus: My Two Cents

We have all witnessed the rise and fall of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Both girls enjoyed enormous success before age 18 (Britney at 16, Lindsay at 16) and both went on to self-destruct in recent memory. Both had relative potential in their chosen fields. Now, both are laughing stocks in the gossip blog world.

Will Miley Cyrus be spared the same fate?

I highly doubt it. Annie Lebowitz photographed the 15-year-old star for Vanity Fair. The pictures are really not that bad. Sort of artistic. A far cry from the ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ of her older predecessors. However, she is only 15. She cannot legally drive. Yet, she is being displayed ‘topless’ wrapped in a sheet for the entire world to see…and for her parents, magazines, and the Miley Cyrus empire to profit off of her.

My main problem with this whole scenario is girls are not allowed to be girls anymore. This teen queen has not even celebrated her sweet 16 yet, and she’s already posing provacatively and becoming the source of wet dreams for sickos everywhere. Her fans are in the same situation. Being 15 today is like being 25. And I, as a 24 year old woman, feel so far behind this underage jailbait movement that I may never be as ‘hip’ as they seem to think they are. You look at them, then me, and you think they are the 25 year olds. But in reality, I feel for them. I had a childhood. I sort of enjoyed that in between stage where I was “not [really] a girl, not [really] a woman.” I got to be 15.

Miley Cyrus didn’t cause this. Britney Spears didn’t cause this. Parents who allowed this trend to continue caused this. The media created an age where girls are pimped out so they (the media) can make a buck. And the victims? Just look at Britney Spears. She is a lost, spoiled, sick little girl who is in over her head, lost her children, and who is, I’d be willing to guess, the loneliest person in the world. Other girls suffer the same fate by turning to drugs, carelessness, and sex to validate their existance.

I feel sorry for Miley. She’s in for a world of trials before she’s actually an established, successful adult as she desperately wants to be in this shoot. At the end of the day, she is only at child.

I’m a big kid now?

I forgot to bring my lunch to work on Friday, so I had to out for food, which is nice except I didn’t have anyone to eat with. To stave off the feelings of loneliness and embarassment by eating by myself, I employed the safe magazine approach. I pulled out the Kiplinger’s magazine my father gave me and began reading it.

Nothing makes me feel more anxious about the future than the state of the economy and my own financial portfolio…or lack thereof. I know nothing about money. All I know is what I have in my checking account and I know that should the worst happen, that would not be enough on which to get by. It freaks me out. And all I want to scream is ‘I’m not really an adult yet! Not really!’ When it comes to money, I still feel like I am playing house…that I’m not really working for a living…at the end of the summer, I’m going home to live with my parents…except that I’m not. This is real.

I don’t know. Sometimes I just feel really, really insecure about things. And reading that darned magazine only heightened that sense of ‘Holy hell, I’m an adult, I should know this stuff!’ feeling. I guess I just need to learn about it and make better decisions, though if this weekend was indicative of making better decisions, I’ve got a long, long way to go.

love and compassion.

i heard something interesting last night that had a lasting impression on me. my problem with the church has always been that it’s so damned condemning. how can one believe in a loving god who would punish his child who loves, worships, does good things, and believes that jesus is the only because they were sinning based on something written in the bible? it did not seem fathomable.  but last night, a wise sage told me this advice:

“Jesus did not come into this world to condemn the world. He came in this world to show God’s glory through love and compassion. ” – Dr. Randy Smith, DPUMC

i have always known this and felt this to be the case but it was exciting to hear a church leader say this…and really believe it. members of the christian coalition and other right-wing, ultra-conservative religious groups need to understand this. stop protesting gay funerals, stop protesting iraq soldiers’ war funerals. show love and compassion. show love. be god’s glory if you’re going to take the megaphone and speak his word for him. in this day in age, we need to forget condemnation and embrace the love we have been given.

A New List of Sins?

The Catholic Church announced today that they have devised a new list of sins that are “certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments, genetic manipulations.” This means the church is changing their tune a bit and moving beyond the traditional seven deadly sins. I think this is a good thing. My problem with the Church is they spend far too much time chastizing people and focusing on sins.

The new areas of focus will be drugs, global atrocities (a good thing to focus on!), the financial disparity between the rich and the poor, and “certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments, genetic manipulations.” I can only assume this is meaning stem cell and cloning research. Maybe genetic testing for genetic disorders. I’m not really sure. I agree that the church should focus more on declaring an opinion on global climate change due to humans and they should continue doing work in the poorer areas of the world to help bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

But should they be dictating medical research? Being a follower of Christ, I do wonder if there is a line to draw. I don’t want to ‘play God’ per se. But I believe God gave humans intelligence for a reason. I do not think we should ever willingly clone humans or animals (even if it has been done), but I do not see a problem with us using stem cells to find cures for ailments that create a painful existance. I know that people would argue that these trials are so people will rely on God and find comfort and compassion in other aspects of life. But isn’t it our duty to help those in need if we can? Is that not what Jesus would do?

It’s a double-edged sword, I guess. We will not know until we meet our Maker. However, I do think that the Catholic Church’s new idea to focus less on pre-marital sex and more on the environment and the social/economic problems is a good way to go. So much is wrong with the world, but let’s be sure to fight the fight’s that matter, okay?

About Florida

I’ve learned two things about Florida:

1.) There’s a nuclear power plant next to Orlando’s airport. How’s that for ‘Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth???’

2.) The Cape Coral Hospital sucks. I don’t like it and I wish my grandmother wasn’t there. I wish she was better. I wish she wasn’t in pain. I love her and I don’t want her to suffer.